Why do all three protagonists look alike?

And what's so great about brunettes...what about us blonde guys?
I've only ever seen us depicted as bards. *cries*

Gabriel Knight and his clone George Stobbart? Duke Nukem?

Oh yeah, I forgot about Duke. XD

I think Duke is bleached, don't think he's natural

XD

And if you're not limited to game protagonists what about:

John Constantine (yes the comic original WAS blonde, screw you Keanu)
The Avatar (Ultima)
Roger Wilco (Space Quest)
Guybrush Threepwood (Monkey Island)
Sadwick (The Whispered World)
He-man (Masters of the Universe)
Alex Murphy (pre-Robocop'd)

I could probably think of more if I wasn't so tired...

But those are not people that us blondes want to be compared to. They are not as manly as "Painkiller guy", Mr. Wake & Mr. Payne. I could live with being compared to Mr. Knight though (but not this Mr. Knight)

Have you seen this image?

I'd rather be associated with them. Yeah, nothing more manly than wannabe Kolchak, wannabe...okay I like Alan Wake, and wannabe Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson). Okay I can't begrudge you Gabriel Knight, though his badassery is helped by Tim Curry voicing him who isn't a blonde though wears fishnets better than any one else in history LOL.

>Kids love brown-haired 30-something white males.

Don't they? It's basic math.

Suppose you are given $100 to bet on the outcomes of a test, distributed however you want. You know the result is A 60% of the time, B 30% of the time, and C 10% of the time. How should you distribute the money to maximize expected winnings?

Why, bet everything on A, of course.

Now, whether making the protagonist the most generic person imaginable is financially viable and/or ethical is another question entirely. But to the extent that physical resemblance + apply filter: adulthood + apply filter: physical fitness are the easiest-to-satisfy criteria for identifiability when you're trying to sell your pitch to the suit / win the blame game, it is the correct solution.

Totally agree......Keanu was too young and American.

Chef Ramsey would've fit the bill perfectly.

Had they used an American I think the character was influenced by Dennis Leary.....Kinda like Morpheus was pretty much Robert Smith fandom.

I would have been happy if they even had a competent actor to even play John...Oh well, what's done is done.

I think game developers use the same archetype for their heroes because those tall, well built, chiseled, handsome guys just look like the rest of us.

Right?

Yeah, on that topic what is it with brown hair meaning trustworthy good guys. I can't even remember the last movie/game when a blonde-haired character wasn't evil or somehow deceptive.